Hair transplantation procedures are well-known, and typically involve (e.g., in a patient having male pattern baldness) harvesting donor hair grafts from the side and back fringe areas (“donor areas”) of the patient's scalp, and implanting the harvested follicular units in a bald area (“recipient area”). The donor hair grafts are typically follicular units, which are naturally occurring aggregates of 1-3 (and much less commonly, 4-5) closely spaced hair follicles that are distributed randomly over the surface of the scalp.
While there are various types of the hair transplantation procedures that exist today, no matter what type of hair transplant procedure is adopted, it is the aim of the physician to provide his patient with a natural looking head of hair. Currently, physicians manually create implantation sites, including front hairlines, and do this based on their experience with the procedures performed on prior patients, hoping to do so in such a way that a natural looking head of hair results.
The patient undergoing the hair transplantation treatment is typically expecting to have hair grafts transplanted in such a way that matches his/her existing hair, and nobody can tell that he/she has actually had a hair transplantation procedure performed. New and improved methods for achieving this in automated fashion are needed.